Poppy Jasper Film Fest Goes International
- Morgan Hill's Poppy Jasper festival expanded into a multi-city event showcasing hundreds of short and feature films. - The 20th edition screened about 300 films and awarded top honors to the features Mistake and Zoe. - The festival highlighted local, international, and women-directed work, strengthening South County film ties (moviemaker.com).
The Poppy Jasper International Film Festival used its 20th edition to spread screenings across five South County cities and deepen its international lineup. (pjiff.org) The 2026 festival ran April 8-15 in Morgan Hill, San Martin, Gilroy, Hollister and San Juan Bautista, with programming listed across venues including Gavilan College Theater, Morgan Hill Playhouse, The District Theater and CMAP. (pjiff.org) Festival listings and local tourism materials put the lineup at roughly 300 films, with entries from 30 to 40 countries and more than 500 filmmakers attending in person. (pjiff2026.eventive.org) (visitmorganhill.org) Top awards went to two features: *Mistake*, Honey Lauren’s drama about an intersex child and the consequences of a decision made at birth, and *Zoe*, a romantic comedy about a woman who gets to test three possible lives. (moviemaker.com) (networkisa.org) The festival’s own materials framed the 2026 program around inclusion, diversity and women’s empowerment, and the public schedule tagged many screenings as women-directed, local filmmakers, youth or student work. (pjiff.org) (pjiff2026.eventive.org) Director Maddie Scariot told MovieMaker she expanded the event beyond Morgan Hill after taking over in 2018, adding nearby Hollister, San Martin, San Juan Bautista and her hometown of Gilroy. (moviemaker.com) That shift turned a single-city festival into a regional circuit, with local-day blocks, filmmaker panels and industry sessions such as a Central Coast Film Summit and a workshop on how independent films are financed, made and sold. (pjiff2026.eventive.org) (pjiff.org) Local coverage before the festival described the anniversary edition as the biggest in its history, with more than 1,100 submissions competing for slots in the final program. (morganhilltimes.com) By the close of the week, Poppy Jasper was still rooted in Morgan Hill’s name and history, but its 2026 map stretched across five cities and a film slate built to pull South County into a wider festival network. (moviemaker.com)
